Building an "aerotropolis" around Gillespie Field and a university-border-bay link in South County took a step closer to reality Tuesday, when the San Diego Foundation announced two planning grants.

The foundation gave $50,000 grants Tuesday to the East County and South County economic development councils. These followed a $2 million visioning effort at the county level last year and $150,000 for a similar downtown San Diego program under way now. A North County effort may come later, officials said.

The East County Economic Development Council, headed by Jo Marie Diamond, aims to turn Gillespie into a hub for advanced precision manufacturing and research-and-development in unmanned flight systems.

"We're the supply chain for the innovation economy," Diamond said.

She said her group is awaiting word on a $40,000 grant from the federal Economic Development Administration and a $300,000 request from Caltrans to hire experts on making airports economic drivers of jobs -- what's called an "aerotropolis." The promoter of this concept, John Kasarda at the University of North Carolina, has already met with Diamond on the subject, she said.

A public outreach effort is likely to be launched this fall to gauge the interest of developing land around the airport, including the 70-acre former Cajon Speedway racetrack, Diamond said.

The South County Economic Development Council, headed by Cindy Gompper-Graves, has a bigger job -- to link the planned four-year university in Otay Ranch to the redevelopment of the Chula Vista bayfront to the new airport-related border crossing planned from Otay Mesa to Tijuana's Rodriguez Internatinonal Airport .

"The trick is to try and link all these together and build on their synergy," Gompper-Graves said.

She said her group has raised nearly $150,000 to match the foundation grant and hire consultants to lead a public-outreach effort this summer and analyze how the big-project plans can support each each other.

"The whole intent of this is to get us to focus on what we can do as an organization in five years that will maximize what we can capture for economic opportunities in South County, given all the projects going on," she said.

The San Diego Foundation has made contact with the San Diego North Economic Development Council to offer similar support, but the group has not yet applied for funds, said Daniel D. Beintema, the foundation's vice president for operations & community partnerships.

The foundation issued the "Our Greater San Diego Vision" plan last year that called for a denser, more vibrant collection of cities and neighborhoods, supported by high-tech industries and improved education. The foundation followed up with creation of the Malin Burnham Center for Civic Engagement to oversee implementation.

The Downtown San Diego Partnership launched its own vision with the foundation's help to involve many neighborhoods throughout the city. A report is expected later this year to outline what downtown priorities should proceed first.

Beintema said the leaders of these "community visioning" efforts will talk regularly and share their findings. He said the smaller grants to East and South County were based on their funding requirements, while the the downtown amount, matched by $150,000 raised privately, was dictated by the wide outreach effort.